


Test Subjects

by Lady_Sci_Fi



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-30
Updated: 2019-08-27
Packaged: 2019-12-26 15:03:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18284693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Sci_Fi/pseuds/Lady_Sci_Fi
Summary: The Doctor and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart awaken blind and half-paralyzed in a courtyard, with no clue why or how they got there and in their conditions. Their trust and reliance in the other will have to get them through this ordeal.





	1. Chapter 1

 “…tor? Doctor?”

 The Doctor flailed a tired hand around his face to stop whoever was tapping at his cheek and chin. “What?” he groaned, feeling a sort of fuzziness in his head. He blinked slowly, and that feeling dissipated after several seconds.

 “Oh good, you’re awake, finally,” came the Brigadier’s voice.

 The Doctor blinked again, trying to see anything in the darkness. “What do you mean ‘finally’?”

 “I woke up several minutes ago.”

 “Oh, yes, I suppose you would have an impatient reaction.”

 “I was concerned,” Alistair replied.

 The Doctor pushed himself up into a sitting position, and sensed Alistair move back slightly. He swung his head side-to-side, hoping to see something of wherever they were, and was disappointed his eyes hadn’t even begun to adjust yet. “I wish it wasn’t so dark.”

 “Dark?” Alistair asked in surprise. “Doctor, it’s not dark in here at all. Quite the opposite, in fact.”

 The Doctor’s eyes widened. “What do you mean the opposite? I can’t see a thing.”

 “Doctor, it’s light in here… wherever here is. We’re in what looks like a grassy courtyard, with a purple-leafed tree nearby, surrounded by silver walls. I don’t see a door or any other way in or out.”

 “You’re seeing all that?”

 “Yes. You’re not?”

 The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck as a very unpleasant thought entered his mind. “No, Brigadier.” He tried to keep his voice calm, but a tiny hint of panic escaped through. “I can’t see any of it.”

 “You’re blind?” Alistair kept his voice measured, deciding that both of them couldn’t panic over the Doctor’s loss of sight in an unknown situation.

 The Doctor fruitlessly rubbed at his eyes. He opened them again, and grunted in frustration. “That’s the word for it.”

 Alistair snorted. “More unfortunate news.”

 “More?”

 Alistair nodded, forgetting momentarily the Timelord couldn’t see it. “In addition to waking up in whatever this place is, we’ve got another spot of bother.” He sighed heavily, and stared down at his legs, swallowing back his own sense of returning panic as he was about to acknowledge them. “I can’t walk,” he stated, curling one hand into a fist and hitting his thigh to see if he could feel anything in it yet. “I can’t feel my legs.”

 “Paralysis?”

 “I suppose so.” The Brigadier was very determined to not let anything show through his voice. He’d already expressed his anxiety and confusion before the Doctor had awakened.

 “Where exactly?”

 “Both legs, mid-thighs down.”

 The Doctor drew his knees up and loosely wrapped his arms around them. “So, the situation is that I’m blind and you’re paralyzed, and we’re in a place you don’t recognize. We have no idea how we got here or in our conditions.”

 “That sums it up,” Alistair agreed. He started to look around their surroundings again.

 “Do you see anything wrong with them?” The Doctor leaned forward in the direction Alistair had spoken from.

 Alistair turned to the other man. “Hm?”

 “My eyes. Is there anything visibly wrong?”

 Alistair awkwardly scooted over to sit beside the Doctor. “Turn this way.” When the Doctor did so, Alistair laid his hand on the Timelord’s cheek and leaned forward to get a better view.

 This close, and intently staring at the other man’s eyes, Alistair nearly found himself entranced by the warm blue. He focused on the task, and said, “I don’t know what I would be looking for.”

 “Anything out of the ordinary.”

 “Doctor.” Alistair raised his brow. “I don’t stare into your eyes nearly often enough to know if there’s any tiny out-of-the-ordinary detail in them now.”

 “Anything obvious, then? No cloudiness, redness, or prominent blood vessels?”

 Alistair withdrew his hand and leaned back after a few seconds. “Nothing like that, no.”

 The Doctor faced forward again. “Then that’ll have to do for now.” He sighed. “Do you see anything else around us?”

 “Without being able to get up and look, no.” Frustration seeped into the Brigadier’s voice. If he had been tied up, fine, but to not be able to walk without being tied or otherwise restrained? Not that he liked either option, but at least with being restrained, there was a chance he could get out of it. “I woke up next to you.”

 “I see,” the Doctor chuckled humourlessly. “Or not, in this case.” He absentmindedly dusted the legs of his trousers off before pushing himself up to his feet. “Shall we have a look?” He then remembered to crouch back down to help Alistair.

 “Doctor, I tried to get up and walk already.”

 “Come on, Brigadier, don’t give up yet.” He blindly reached out, accidently finding the other man’s face and shoulder before he found one of his hands and gripped the wrist and forearm.

 “I didn’t say I was.”

 “That’s the spirit.” The Doctor looped Alistair’s arm over his shoulders, then moved one hand across his back and gripped his side for better support.

 Alistair put his hand down on the grass, ready to push himself up.

 “Ready? And… up.” The Doctor pushed up with his legs as Alistair pushed up with his hand. Once that hand left the ground, it was all up to the Doctor’s strength to get the other man upright. “Feeling anything?” he asked when they’d finally maneuvered the Brigadier’s feet under him.

 Alistair shook his head. “It still feels the same.”

 “Perhaps some motion will get some feeling back into it,” the Doctor said to keep their spirits up. He rose to his full height and adjusted for Alistair’s added weight.

 Alistair slipped down, and turned enough to grab onto the front of the Doctor’s jacket and shirt. The Doctor lifted him fully again, more easily this time now that he had a feel for the Brigadier. Alistair was surprised by how strong the Doctor was to be able to fully support him so easily. Not too easily where there weren’t any hints of struggling, but easily enough that Alistair felt secure he wouldn’t be unexpectedly dropped to the ground. He admitted to himself that he probably wouldn’t be able to do as well with the Doctor if their conditions were reversed.

 The Doctor’s arm around Alistair’s middle tightened. “Right, we’re going to move now. Which way?”

 Alistair glanced around for anything promising to start with. He spotted a faint outline against a wall that he hadn’t noticed before. “There might be a door over to our left.”

 “Alright, sounds like a good start to me,” the Doctor agreed as he turned in that direction.

 Alistair tried, as a point of pride as well as practicality, to move his legs alongside the Doctor’s. All he could manage was to lean in the correct direction, and he clenched his teeth in frustration. Without the Doctor’s physical strength, he would be stuck on the floor, absolutely helpless. And even now, movement was slow going. He wondered how much frustration the Timelord was hiding from him about his new blindness.

 “Stop,” Alistair prompted before the Doctor could walk them into the wall.

 “Anything like a knob or control panel?” the Doctor inquired.

 “No… only a seam.” Alistair let go of the Doctor’s shirt to reach out and touch it. He immediately recoiled, nearly falling sideways, when the engraved line beneath his fingers lit up purple.

 “What happened?” The Doctor readjusted his grip on Alistair’s side.

 “It was perfectly normal before. Now it’s glowing purple.”

 The Doctor grunted. “I wish I could see it.” He leaned forward and reached out to find it with his own fingers. His hand fell upon smooth wall, and Alistair laid his hand over the other man’s to guide it to the seam.

 The Doctor took a moment to simply feel up and down. “Is the entire seam lit up, or only this section?”

 “The whole thing, but it’s glowing brighter where you’re touching.”

 The Doctor withdrew his hand. “And now?”

 “It’s all still glowing, but at the same intensity now.”

 “Some sort of puzzle?” the Doctor mused.

 “Daftest puzzle I’ve seen, if that’s so.”

 “It doesn’t have to be a Human puzzle, Brigadier. You said the tree was purple, which indicates an alien environment.”

 “I suppose…” Alistair sighed deeply. Then he suggested, “Perhaps you could put me down?”

 “Do you think there’s anything else promising to examine?”

 Alistair looked around again, this time searching for any more possible door seams. “Not that I can see from here.”

 The Doctor nodded, and bent his knees to gently lower the other man to the ground. Alistair scooted backwards to let the Doctor have enough space without tripping over him.

 The Doctor’s hand found the seam more easily this time, and he followed it up, across, and down. It certainly felt like the size of a door for beings of their size. He felt for a handle or control panel, and like Alistair had already told him, there wasn’t one. “A door with no handle or key…”

 “Which would make it a wall,” Alistair responded dryly.

 “Less of that, please, Lethbridge-Stewart.”

 Alistair shook his head, and continued looking around for anything else.

 The Doctor moved his left hand from the seam to inside it a few inches, while keeping his other hand on the other side of the seam. Alistair turned his attention back at that moment, and noticed, “It’s still glowing brighter there.”

 “Is it? Interesting… How about…” The Doctor moved his other hand in the same amount.

 “Still glowing,” Alistair reported.

 “We’re on to something. What next…”

 “Keep moving your hands like that?” Alistair suggested.

 The Doctor slowly moved his hands to the middle, and Alistair stated, “The seam is glowing brighter.”

 The Doctor stopped his hands when they met in the middle, and an instant later he jumped back at the sudden sound of it sliding open and the blast of cool air against his face. Alistair raised his hands to the Doctor’s lower back to stop him from falling directly on top of him.

 The Doctor caught his balance, and stared sightlessly ahead. “Hello?” he called out.

 Alistair peered around the Doctor’s legs, and only saw another grassy area ahead, this time in what looked like a corridor. “It’s clear,” he informed, pushing himself forward in an attempt to get up to his feet.

 The Doctor stayed still for several seconds, listening for anything coming. Satisfied, he let down his guard to crouch down and help Alistair up.

 Once they were both on their feet and facing the newly-opened corridor, the Doctor turned his head to the Brigadier. His nose brushed against the other man’s cheek before Alistair also turned his head. Alistair thought it was slightly disturbing to remember the Timelord couldn’t see him while they were this close.

 “Only one way to go?” the Doctor asked.

 “Looks like it.”

 The Doctor half-smiled. “Well, I’ll be your legs.”

 “Which means I’m your eyes.” Alistair looked into the blue of those blind eyes. His hand clenched more tightly in the red velvet jacket.

 Then, they turned in unison to whatever lay ahead.


	2. Chapter 2

 “Stop,” Alistair commanded before they could get too close to the thing that caught his interest.

 The Doctor immediately did so and asked, “What is it?”

 “Something on the floor,” Alistair reported. He leaned forward to get a better look. “A pattern of coloured squares. It goes on for a good stretch.”

 “Is there any sense to the pattern?”

 Alistair shook his head. “Not really. There are purple squares and green ones. Most are green, with purple making up the rest…” He studied what he could see more closely. “Hold on, it looks like the purple cuts and winds through the green.”

 “Like a path?”

 “Perhaps.”

 “If that is the case, perhaps something undesirable happens if we don’t stay on the purple squares?”

 “I’d rather not take that chance, either,” Alistair agreed.

 “Of course, that’s assuming we’ve figured this out correctly,” the Doctor pointed out.

 Alistair turned his head to the other man and sighed. “Would you mind not giving me any more doubt in the situation?” He focused on the floor again. "The squares are about the length of your feet. So, it shouldn’t be difficult to stay on the purple ones. Or, it wouldn’t be if I could control my own feet.”

 “Oh, I think we can still manage.” Then the Doctor suddenly let go of Alistair’s wrist to bend down and grab him behind the knees. Without much effort, he lifted the Brigadier bridal-style. He adjusted his arm under Alistair’s back to hold him more securely.

 Alistair nearly squeaked at the unexpected motion, and tightened his arm around the Doctor’s shoulders. “You could have warned me.” He spared a second to appreciate that it was only him and the Doctor here, and no one would see his physical situation.

 “I could have,” the Doctor acknowledged. He took a tentative step forward. “Right, guide me.”

 Alistair stared down at the floor. “Shift to the left one step… and forward two.” He let out a breath of relief when the Doctor’s foot came down on the purple square, and nothing happened to them. He noted the glow, like the door. “I think purple is the way to go here.”

 The Doctor looked down, even though he couldn’t see anything. “What did you think would happen?”

 “I don’t know, Doctor. Explosives, pit, gas? Any number of things. Step directly right.”

 The Doctor carefully raised his foot and moved it. He couldn’t stop the small breath of relief as he got it correct again.

 It took them several minutes to navigate the patterned floor. Several minutes that Alistair was worried the Doctor would misstep or stumble and they would both be injured or killed. His hand had held tightly to the shoulder of the Timelord’s jacket the entire time. He had fought the urge to hold onto the front of it as well.

 “How are you holding up, Brigadier?” the Doctor asked before he set the man back down on his unresponsive feet and held him up as before again.

 “As expected,” Alistair responded.

 “Shall we have a break? Is there anything against the wall?”

 Alistair didn’t protest to the idea of sitting for a few minutes. “No, it’s clear.” He turned the Doctor’s body towards a wall.

 Once they reached it, the Doctor turned them until their backs were against it, and he slowly slid down until they were sitting. He let go of Alistair’s waist and arm over his shoulders, and took a deep breath.

 “Any theories?” Alistair inquired after a moment.

 “Theories?”

 “On who captured us and why?”

 “Oh.” The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck. “I have nothing to go on to provide speculation yet. It could even be an entity I’ve never heard of before.”

 “So, now what? Keep doing these little tests or whatever they’re supposed to be? We don’t even know where we are or where we’re going.”

 “Then we keep going until we do find that out.”

 Alistair blew out a frustrated breath and knocked the back of his head against the wall a few times.

 “Potentially hurting yourself more won’t help, you know,” the Doctor admonished. He was quiet for a several moments, thinking over their situation. Then he snorted. “Clever, really.”

 Alistair turned his head from staring at the opposite wall to the Timelord. “What is?”

 “Think about it, what they took from us. You’re a man of action, and they took away your mobility. I’m a man of observation, and they took away my sight.”

 “They’ve been watching us, then, to know that about us.”

 “Perhaps.” The Doctor shrugged. “Either way, they’ve made this experience personal to us.”

 “I don’t see how that’s particularly clever. Concerning, most definitely.”

 “It certainly means that us being brought here wasn’t chance.”

 “As I said, concerning more than anything. Unless you’ve got an upside to that…”

 The Doctor slumped, and closed his eyes. He drew his knees up and rested his arms on top of them.

 Alistair was quiet for a while, then a particularly nasty thought came to him. “Doctor, what if… what if this is permanent, what they did to us?”

 The Doctor grimaced, also having come to that possibility. To be blind until his next regeneration? Even if he could somehow heal his eyes before then, he’d still be blind until he figured out exactly what whoever had done this had actually done and a way to repair it. And for Alistair? Such an injury would be devastating for him. Not only for his career, but the Doctor knew emotionally, that kind of blow… He would hate to see the Brigadier go through that.

 The Timelord pushed aside all those negative implications to smile and say, “We don’t know if it is permanent.”

 “But we don’t know it isn’t, either.”

 The Doctor sighed at the attempt to deflate his optimism. “For now, let’s think that it isn’t. And once we find whoever’s in charge here, we’ll know more.”

 Alistair stretched his shoulders back. “If you think that’s best, Doctor.”

 “I do,” the Doctor insisted. He could sense an impatience from the other man now, and asked, “Shall we keep going?”

 “The sooner we get through this, the better,” Alistair agreed, touching the Doctor’s forearm to let him know exactly where he was.

 The Doctor took Alistair’s hand and pulled his arm over his shoulders. He pushed himself up to his feet.

 He only got halfway up before, without any warning, the floor dropped out from under them. Both men cried out, and gripped whatever part of the other they were holding on to as tight as possible.

 Neither had a free hand to flail out to find anything to grab onto to stop or slow their fall. All they could cling to was each other.

 They hit a steep incline feet-first, and slid down along it. It couldn’t have been more than ten seconds, but to the Doctor, it felt longer due to lack of seeing the slide and the upcoming end. Alistair closed his eyes at the sight of the drop-off, and they both fell into open air.

 They both felt weightless for three seconds, which then came to an abrupt stop as they finally landed on another declining surface, this one much more horizontal, and rolled to a stop when it flattened.

 Alistair’s clenched fist in the Doctor’s jacket loosened slightly as he lay on his side, with the other man mirroring his position. Several seconds passed before Alistair determined that the immediate danger was over, and he simply breathed. The Doctor’s breaths fluttered through Alistair’s mussed hair and across his forehead.

 Eventually, Alistair said the Doctor’s name, needing to hear a response.

 “I’m alright, Brigadier.” His voice was quiet, almost as though he feared drawing attention to them.

 Alistair raised his head enough to see over the white hair. “Looks like it’s just us.”

 “Well, that does it. Someone has to be watching us, to activate this trap as we were getting ready to move on.”

 Alistair shivered from the new chill in the air. “Don’t know if that’s supposed to reassure me or make me more concerned.”

 “You’re always ‘concerned,’” the Doctor pointed out. He let go of Alistair’s arm to push himself up into a half-sitting position. “What’s around us?”

 Alistair pushed himself fully upright. “It’s not as bright as it was up there, but still light enough to see a good distance. That slide is gone. The area looks… a lot larger than the courtyard we woke up in. I can’t see any walls.” He looked down. “Short grass, shorter than the courtyard.”

 The Doctor nodded. “I felt that, yes.”

 “No trees or any other vegetation. Nothing indicating what to do now, at least from where I’m stand- sitting.”

 “First, before we decide on that…” The Doctor rolled his shoulders back, trying to relieve an ache in them from the hard landing. He moved to sit on his knees and leaned towards Alistair’s direction. “I’m not feeling any broken bones or serious injuries for myself. You?”

 Alistair didn’t correct the Doctor’s gaze past him, and he looked to his legs. “I’ll expect I’ll have a couple bruises, but nothing more in what I can feel.” He didn’t see anything obviously wrong with his legs or feet. No awkward angles that would indicate a break or any blood that would mean a large cut. 

 “We’ll need to know more than that about your legs.” The Doctor turned slightly and tentatively reached out.

 “What does it matter if I can’t feel them?”

 The Doctor didn’t answer, and his hand came down on Alistair’s side. Alistair took his hand and guided it down to his thigh. “You won’t be able to see anything that might wrong with them,” he pointed out.

 “Pull your trouser leg up.”

 “Doctor-“

 “Please, Lethbridge-Stewart? The last thing we need is an injury we didn’t know about.”

 “What are you going to do?”

 “Feel them for any fractures or breaks or gashes.” The Timelord smirked a little. “Besides, I know you wouldn’t tell me if you saw anything wrong with them.”

 Alistair didn’t dignify that accusation with a response. “Very well, if you insist, Doctor.” He leaned forward to reach for his knee. He forgot the Doctor couldn’t see him to move, and they butted heads.

 “Sorry, old chap,” the Doctor apologized first, awkwardly moving back. He still kept his hand on the other mans’ thigh.

 Alistair breathed through his nose in relief as he pulled up both trouser legs and saw it all looked normal and perfectly fine. He had to remind himself that looks could be deceiving. He was reminded of that as the Doctor’s hand slowly moved down and couldn’t feel a single thing.

 The Doctor didn’t rush through the task, closing his eyes to help him focus on finding anything that could be out of place. Alistair was quiet throughout, and the Timelord was glad that he wasn’t protesting.

 To keep his mind occupied from the disconcerting strangeness of seeing the Doctor’s hands on him without having any physical sensation from it, Alistair looked around more. A couple minutes later, he flinched at the tap to his chest that was probably meant for his arm.

 “Nothing wrong that I can feel,” the Doctor reported.

 “Oh, good.” Alistair pushed his trouser legs back down. “Well, we’re certainly not going back the way we came.”

 The Doctor lifted a leg so that he was half-kneeling, and stared forward, holding his hand in the air between them.

 “Doctor?” Alistair prompted after a moment.

 The Doctor shook his head to snap out of his thoughts. “I was just… never mind. Right then, let’s see if we can figure out what to do here.”


	3. Chapter 3

 They’d been exploring the new area for several minutes, not finding anything of use so far, when the Doctor suddenly froze. Alistair had been expecting him to take another step and leaned forward too far. The Doctor stopped him from falling with an arm around his chest. The Timelord shushed the other man.

 “What?” Alistair whispered.

 The Doctor swallowed, willing his other senses to heighten. “I don’t know,” he whispered back. “Something doesn’t feel right.”

 “That would be this entire situ-“

 The Doctor shushed his friend again. Then he asked, “Do you see anything?”

 “Nothing new,” Alistair reported after several seconds.

 The Doctor relaxed slightly. “Maybe it was just a change in atmospheric pressure or something similar.”

 “Doctor, we don’t need to be jumping at our own shadows.”

 “Don’t be so dismissive. It could be important.”

 “I’m sure you’ll tell me when it is.” Alistair refocused on finding anything of help.

 A moment later, the hairs on the back of the Timelord’s neck stood on end, and he froze again.

 “What?” Alistair asked, once again nearly overbalancing at the sudden stop. “Another atmosph-“

 “Quiet,” the Doctor lowly hissed. Now he figured out what the feeling was. He’s certainly had enough experience feeling like prey on various instances. He was grateful Alistair took him seriously and stayed quiet. Still, he could feel the anxious hand around his waist squeezing just a little more tightly. “Do you see anything?” he inquired very lowly.

 “There’s nothing there,” Alistair whispered.

 “Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there,” the Doctor pointed out. He then stood perfectly still, or as still as he could while supporting Alistair.

 Alistair looked around and down, trying to see whatever could be bothering the Doctor, but still saw nothing except the grass. He didn’t notice any disturbed patches in the grass around them, either. Then, without any warning, they dropped to the ground together.

 Alistair ended up flat on his back, with the Doctor practically cradling him and bending low over him. He opened his mouth in question, but the Doctor seemed to sense it, and his hand came down over Alistair’s eyes and nose before sliding down to his mouth.

 Alistair knew not to move, his hand gripping harder around the Timelord’s bicep. He sensed it too, now. Something was in here with them, and very close. The Doctor had dropped them to the ground on purpose to avoid whatever it was.

 The Doctor felt something physically brush against his back, and he slowly bent over more. He moved his arm protectively around Alistair’s head and shoulders. He closed his sightless eyes in anticipation, not daring to move any further.

 Alistair looked down his body, and his eyes widened when he saw his trousers leg shifting, like some large animal was sniffing and pawing at them. He instinctively tried to kick out at it, but his legs wouldn’t do so.

 “Don’t move,” the Doctor warned, feeling the physical effort in the other man’s torso.

 Alistair breathed through his nose, the Doctor’s hand still covering his mouth. If only he could see whatever it was. What good was he if both of them were blind to it?

 The Doctor grimaced as the scrutiny returned to him, feeling hot breath on the back of his neck. He willed for whatever it was to move on from them, trying to silently convince it that they weren’t worth its attention.

 It took several long tense minutes of the thing investigating them before the Doctor sensed it begin to move away. Alistair gripped his arm so tightly that it would probably bruise later.

 Finally, when it had moved a far distance away, the Doctor slowly removed his hand from Alistair’s face and straightened up. “Are you alright, Brigadier?” he asked quietly.

 Alistair nodded. “Better now that that thing’s gone.” He glanced around. “It is gone?”

 “Near as I can tell, we’re safe for the moment.”

 “For the moment,” Alistair echoed. He watched as the Doctor turned his head, and listened with him. Not that Alistair’s listening had helped earlier, anyway, but it made him feel useful.

 The Doctor nodded. “Alright, come on.” He put the other man’s arm around his shoulders and lifted him to his feet.

 “At the lack of anything else to go on, same direction as before?” Alistair suggested.

 “Might as well,” the Doctor replied with a shrug.

 Alistair guided the Doctor in the correct direction, and they set off again. He kept an eye out for anything new, and only a minute later, spotted something on the ground to the right. “More glowing purple. I can see it under the grass.” He checked behind them to see if he had been missing any, and was relieved he hadn’t.

 “Another path?”

 Alistair leaned out to see more. “Looks like it. Over this way.”

 The Doctor followed Alistair’s lead. He inquired, “I wonder if whoever is running this just lit that path up for us.”

 “Perhaps. It is rather convenient it showed up right next to us,” Alistair considered. He blew out a breath, and corrected their course with a nudge to the Timelord. “Either way, I don’t appreciate being toyed around with like this.” He nervously glanced around, in case he could happen to see the thing that was in this large area with them.

 “I’m sure you’ll let them know your feelings on the matter, when we meet them.”

 “Oh, believe me, Doctor. I have several more feelings on this matter to let them have a piece of my mind over.”

 The Doctor lightly chuckled. “So do I.”

 Several minutes later, Alistair saw that the path was leading them to a sort of observation platform. The path disappeared quickly after, indicating that it had been purposely put there to guide them after the encounter with whatever else was in here.

 “It’s a good… ten meters up, I’d say,” Alistair reported. “And… there is a ladder. This way.”

 When they reached the ladder, Alistair sighed at how high up it was. Neither of them would be able to reach it to pull it down. When he told the Doctor, the Timelord asked precisely how high it was set. Alistair gave him his estimate, and the Doctor smiled. “Perfect,” he said.

 “What’s perfect?”

 The Doctor quickly moved behind Alistair and held him tightly around the waist. Then he dropped to his knees.

 “Doctor, what are you doing?” Alistair asked, looking down to see the man maneuvering between his legs.

 “Be ready to hold on,” was all the Doctor said.

 An indignant yelp came from Alistair’s mouth as he was unsteadily lifted into the air, his legs now over the Doctor’s shoulders. He clutched at the Doctor’s hair to stop himself from tipping forward and to the ground.

 “Steady enough?” the Doctor asked when he had fully stood. His arms were securely wrapped around Alistair’s shins.

 “Steady isn’t the word I’d use.” Alistair shifted his weight. He still felt precariously perched.

 “It’ll have to do. Do you think you can reach the ladder now?”

 “Take three steps forward. Now… a little to the left.” When the Doctor had done so and they were directly underneath the ladder, Alistair reached up. His fingertips were just short of the bottom rung. “Damn, still can’t.” An indignant yelp came from his mouth when the Doctor jumped, and he immediately latched onto the man below him to prevent himself from falling backwards off him.

 “Don’t grab me. Grab the ladder.”

 “You could’ve told me before you jumped.”

 The Doctor made an impatient noise, and Alistair let go of him. “Ready?”

 Alistair raised his arms. “Ready.”

 “One, two, three!”

 Alistair’s fingertips touched the rung, but couldn’t wrap around it. The Doctor managed to make sure they didn’t topple over when they landed.

 “Little higher,” Alistair said. He kept one hand on the Doctor’s head to push off of. “Ready.”

 “One, two, three!”

 This time, with Alistair able to push off a little further, his fingers fully grasped the rung. His shoulder jerked as he fell back down, but he kept a tight hold on it. He lost the Doctor’s support under him, and he dangled for a couple seconds before he and the ladder came down.

 Alistair grunted as he landed in a heap. The Doctor quickly found him, his hand coming down on Alistair’s stomach. “I’m fine,” he said before the Timelord could ask. “The ladder is down.”

 The Doctor reached out, and found the metal. He gripped a rung. “Feels solid.” He turned his head back to Alistair, eyes aimed at his chest. “Are you ready for a climb?”

 Alistair pushed himself upright. “If you are.”

 The Doctor smiled, and turned around. Alistair looped his arms around the other man’s neck and clasped his hands together. The Doctor stood, and choked a little at the pressure around his neck. He pulled Alistair further up on him to ease it.

 “Pity you can’t wrap your legs around me to make this easier.”

 “If I could do that, you wouldn’t need to carry me.”

 “Very true.” The Doctor’s hands found the ladder, and he lifted his foot to the bottom rung, he missed, and pitched forward, banging his head on the side. He blinked and stated, “I’m alright,” before Alistair could ask. He found his footing the second time, and they made their way up.

 Alistair’s arms strained with the effort of staying in the same position to not slip down and choke the Doctor. “Almost there,” he said a couple minutes later.

 Finally, the Doctor hauled them both up over the edge and crawled onto the platform. Once far enough, Alistair let go and rolled onto his back. The Doctor sat, hunched over from the effort.

 Alistair sat up after a moment to look around. “There’s a door some meters behind you, and…” His eyes widened at what was only a few feet behind him. “Now that is a welcome sight.”

 “What?”

 Alistair crawled over to it, and stated, “Food. There’s a plate with vegetables and meat, and large cups of…” He lifted one and took a tiny taste. “Water.”

 The Doctor followed the other’s voice to the food. “I was rather hoping they would feed us at some point.”

 Alistair took a careful bite of the meat. “Tastes like beef.” He took the Doctor’s hand to guide it to the plate. He directed the other hand to the other cup.

 “Not the most jolly place for a picnic, but it’ll do.”


	4. Chapter 4

 “So, what next?” Alistair asked, finishing off the food on his half of the plate.

 “Look around for anything else that could be a lead,” the Doctor answered, like it was the most obvious next step.

 Alistair sighed, fruitlessly wishing for something a little more concrete and confident. “I really wish you could see and I could walk.”

 “As in repairing what was done or switching conditions?”

 “Preferably the former.”

 “But that would defeat the purpose of all this, you know.”

 “Doctor, I don’t give a damn what the purpose of this is. I just want it over with, however that might happen.”

 “I don’t disagree. This is certainly unpleasant.”

 “Far more than ‘unpleasant,’” Alistair snorted.

 “I told you that sort of thinking won’t help the situation.”

 “Yes, yes, keep our spirits up and all that.” Alistair shook his head.

 “We haven’t been here nearly long enough to start losing that yet. Not that I’d take you for that sort.”

 Alistair rubbed the bridge of his nose between his fingers. “I’ll take being able to call in for back-up, at the very least. Something to not make me feel so…”

 “Helpless?”

 “Not exactly the word I would’ve chosen.”

 “But accurate nonetheless?”

 Alistair didn’t admit to it, but he didn’t need to. The Doctor nodded gently, and reached out to pat the other man. His hand landed on the unfeeling knee, but Alistair silently appreciated it anyway.

 “I wouldn’t call us helpless,” the Doctor quietly said a moment later after feeling nothing left on the plate.

 “We’re not,” Alistair agreed.

 “Let’s not forget that, or-“

 The Timelord suddenly let out a hard cry of pain, and clutched at the upper half of his face and side of his head.

 “Doctor!” Alistair shoved the plate and cups out of the way and surged towards the other man. Instead of grabbing the Doctor’s wrists to see what was wrong like he had intended, he ended up falling awkwardly in the Doctor’s lap as an intense pain flared in his lower back and upper thighs. He desperately grabbed at the Doctor’s leg and curled up as tightly as he could manage. He pressed his face into the Doctor’s abdomen and clenched his teeth. A long cry escaped through them anyway.

 The Doctor slumped over, and the hand over his eyes fisted in the shoulder of Alistair’s uniform. He buried his face in the back of the other’s neck. All they could do was hold onto each other and cry out through the pain as their bodies convulsed and shivered.

 Then, the agony finally began to fade away, leaving both men unmoving and breathing heavily. Several lingering shivers shot down the Timelord’s spine before he could find his voice. “Ali… Alistair?” It came out quiet and afraid.

 “You’re… alright?” The use of his first name alone was concerning enough. Alistair tried to raise his head, but the Doctor didn’t seem to want to move to let him do so.

 The Doctor made a tiny sound of affirmation. “You?”

 “Think so.”

 The Doctor opened his eyes, not that it did any good, and raised his head. He felt Alistair begin to push himself up as well.

 “It was in my lower back.”

 “My head and eyes.” The Timelord sighed. “Specific to us, then.”

 “What does that mean?” Alistair hadn’t pushed himself completely out of the Doctor’s lap yet.

 “A sort of top-up to keep our conditions maintained? A warning to not get too comfortable?”

 “As if I could ever get comfortable with my legs like this.”

 The Doctor blew out a long breath. He raised his hands and settled the palms on Alistair’s shoulders.

 “Doctor?” Alistair questioned as the slightly-cool hands tentatively moved up the sides of his neck.

 “Just… let me? Please?”

 Alistair couldn’t deny the vulnerable expression of the other man’s face. He nodded, and the Doctor felt the motion. Alistair kept his eyes open and trained on the blue pair so close to him, although those eyes were trained more on his mouth than meeting his gaze.

 The Doctor’s fingers were light on the soldier’s skin. They came up under his chin, traced along his jaw, then ghosted up to the slightly-parted lips. Alistair closed his mouth, and the Doctor uttered an apology. Still, he kept going. His mouth twitched in a little smile at the feel of the mustache under his fingertips.

 “Find that amusing?” Alistair asked. The Doctor didn’t verbally respond, but the tiny expansion of the smile told the answer.

The fingers moved up over and around the bridge of Alistair’s nose. Then they fanned out over his cheeks. The thumbs ghosted over his quickly-closed eyes and traced across the brows. His hands turned to let his fingers go up into the dark hair.

 Alistair didn’t want to say anything else, the vulnerability and intimacy of the Timelord’s actions dissuading him to. Not that he could really think of anything to talk about, anyway.

 The Doctor let his hands linger there for a moment, then pulled them away and dropped them to his lap. “Thank you.”

 “Satisfied?”

 “For now.” The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck. “Is there anything you need from me?”

 Alistair was quiet for a long moment, simply staring at the other man. Then he shook his head and answered, “Nothing like that, no.”

 The Doctor’s hand fell upon Alistair’s upper thigh. “If you do, don’t hesitate to ask.”

 Alistair didn’t verbally respond, but the Doctor seemed to sense the response from the breath and slight movement forward.

 “How’s your head?” Alistair inquired when the Doctor had drawn back again.

 “All the pain’s gone now.”

 “Same with me.” Alistair shuddered. “I hope that doesn’t happen again.”

 “All the more motivation to get through this quickly,” the Doctor agreed. He took Alistair’s arm, slung it over his shoulders, and in a now much-practiced motion, lifted them both to their feet.

 Alistair couldn’t see a definite way to go up here, and suggested, “Maybe if we head away from the ladder, we’ll find a door or path.”

 “Sounds as good an idea as any.”

 They were both more unsteady than before, the effect of the unexpected attack on their bodies still present.


	5. Chapter 5

 They had switched to having Alistair on the Doctor’s back, the man’s arms around the Doctor’s shoulders and the Timelord’s arms supporting Alistair’s legs around his waist. 

 “Don’t tell anyone I said this, but I’m glad you can carry me.”

 “Don’t I do that at HQ, anyway?” the Doctor joked.

 Alistair rolled his eyes. “That’s not what I meant.” He guided the other man around the corner of the walkway.

 “I know.”

 “I doubt I could do as good a job if our positions were reversed. And if you couldn’t do this as easily-“

 “Our progress would be very slow going, indeed.” The Doctor tilted his head to rub his cheek up Alistair’s arm. “You’re doing a good enough job being the eyes of the operation.”

 “Only good enough?”

 “Impeccable, actually.”

 “Well, as long as I’m pulling my weight.”

 “I think I’m carrying it now.”

 Alistair sighed with a tiny amused smile. Then he straightened up higher at the sight of the purple door seam in the wall they were approaching. “A door. Head slightly left.”

 The Doctor adjusted, and stopped when Alistair told him to. “Think it works the same as the other one?”

 “Doctor, I have absolutely no idea.” Alistair glanced down around them before he said, “But you’ll have to put me down before you can try to open it.”

 The Doctor nodded, crouched down, and slowly released the man’s legs to let him slide down to the metal floor. “Alright?” he asked when Alistair’s weight had disappeared off of him completely. He looked down and behind him. He waited until Alistair responded before turning his sightless gaze back to the door.

 “Take a half-step to the left.” Alistair scooted in the same direction the same amount to keep within easy reach of the Timelord. He raised his hand, ready to grab the Doctor’s leg if needed.

 The Doctor remembered the placement and motion of his hands for the previous door, and did them again.

 Alistair had no hope to react to the electric charge before it struck the Doctor. A split-second later, he yanked him backwards. The Doctor tripped and fell back over the other man with a cry of surprise and pain.

 Alistair turned himself over and placed one hand on the floor on the other side of the Doctor to hold himself up over him. “Doctor?”

 The Doctor blinked. “What happened?” He pushed himself up, and they bumped noses.

 Alistair withdrew from the accidental contact. “It looked like electricity.”

 The Doctor tilted his head in discomfort. “Felt like it.”

 “Are you hurt?”

 The Doctor took a deep breath, focusing inward for a moment. “I don’t think so. More so shock from the unexpected trap.”

 Alistair didn’t move, not until he was certain the Doctor was fine. But without much medical knowledge and any outward signs of damage, he determined his own opinion wouldn’t be any real use, and pushed himself back to let the Doctor sit up. He asked, “Maybe you did it wrong?”

 “I don’t doubt my own memory.”

 “Of course not.”

 “Perhaps I wasn’t lined up exactly right, or this door opens to a different stimulus. Let me up?”

 Alistair relented, and backed away fully. When the Doctor stood, he verbally directed him back to standing directly in front of the door. This time, Alistair kept close watch on the seam, anticipating its glow.

 It wasn’t as bright or obvious this time, but Alistair caught it, and said, “Move your hands slightly higher… there.”

 “Now?”

 “Yes.” Alistair grimaced as the doctor repeated the same motion as before, hoping he hadn’t sentenced him to another shock.

 This time, the door slid open. They both heard the clicking sound, but only Alistair could see inside to know what was coming. “Down!” he shouted, again yanking the Doctor back and down to the floor. What looked like darts flew over the Doctor’s head as he fell. Alistair left no room for argument as he covered the Doctor’s body with his own as much as he could manage. They heard the tiny whistles of another round of darts flying over them.

 “Another trap?” the Doctor inquired into the side of Alistair’s head.

 “Definitely.” Alistair raised his head enough to look back into the newly-opened corridor.

 “Is it safe now?”

  “Just a moment.” Alistair fully pushed himself up and scooted closer to the doorway. He saw the long line in the wall of the corridor filled with another round of darts aimed at the open doorway. “Not quite. There are more darts,” he reported. He decided to take the risk to himself, and placed one hand over the threshold. He let out a breath of relief that the weapons didn’t trigger. He thought for a moment. “I’m supposing if we stay low, we’ll be fine.”

 “Crawl along, then?”

 “Best that way, I think, yes. I’m certainly not able to do any more than that,” Alistair reminded.

 The Doctor nodded, and turned over onto his front. He started to try to move past Alistair, but the other man stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

 “Perhaps I should go first?” he suggested dryly.

 The Doctor snorted lightly. “Right, yes, of course.”

 Alistair readied his arms in the army-crawl position, and wished for the unknown time that his legs worked. It would make this go faster. Still, he could do this with only his arms, which meant he would end up with more of a strain on them. It was tolerable.

 The Doctor kept his hand on Alistair’s body until the other man had completely gone past him. Then he followed along after the muffled sounds of effort. 

 “Why is this so damn long?” Alistair asked as the weaponized channel in the wall kept going past a couple meters.

 “They want to be thorough?” the Doctor suggested.

 “There are enough to be excessively thorough against an entire platoon.”

 “Or maybe they really want to see us crawl around on the floor.” The Doctor sighed. “Well, whatever it takes.”

 “Whatever it takes.” Getting this whole experience over with was certainly worth a little loss of dignity, if that’s what it took. Well, more than a little loss of dignity considering everything, but crawling around on the floor wasn’t much of an add-on to being carried by the Doctor the entire time.

 A couple minutes later, Alistair finally stopped and pushed himself upright. “That’s the end of it.”

 The Doctor stopped as he came alongside the other man. “Don’t see anything else that could harm us?”

 “No. I think we’re safe, for the time being.”

 “Less of the time-conditional statements, please, Lethbridge-Stewart.” The Doctor tentatively got to his knees in case of any more nasty surprises.

 “Nothing’s happened,” Alistair informed after several tense seconds.

 “Right,” the Doctor smiled in the other man’s direction. “We’ll take that as a good sign.” He reached out for him, and found his hand.

 They resettled on having Alistair on the Doctor’s back again. “How long do you think we’ve been here?”

 “Not too long. Not long enough for us to consider sleep yet.”

 “I’d rather not get to that point. I don’t trust being asleep in this place.”

 The Doctor hummed his agreement. “They could do anything to us.”

 “We don’t need to wake up both blind and half-paralyzed, or whatever else they might want.” Alistair sighed, then told the Doctor to stop at the green and purple glowing squares on the floor that extended a good distance down the corridor.

 “Does purple still look like the better way?” the Doctor asked.

 “We established that before, and I hope the rules haven’t changed.”

 “They didn’t seem to have with the door.”

 Alistair didn’t say any more about his doubts of the possibilities of the rules changing. Surely at some point they would? Instead, he said, “There are less purple squares than before, and they’re spaced further apart without a connecting path. They are larger, though, enough for both feet with no problem.”

 “A physical challenge, then.”

 “Doctor, everything has been a physical challenge, including finding the door out of the courtyard we woke up in.”

 “Yes, but a more purposeful one.” The Timelord pushed Alistair a little higher up on his back and held his legs more tightly. “Where do we start?”

 “Shift right.” When the other man had done so, Alistair asked, “Can you keep your balance on one foot while I direct it?”

 “I don’t see why not.”

 “Right… raise your left one… Now move it forward until I say stop…”

Once they were firmly settled on the first square, Alistair grimaced at the location of the next one. “We’ll have to jump for it.”

 “Ah… Now I see why you sounded worried about this.”

 “I really wish you could see right now,” Alistair muttered. “Turn slightly right… a little more… there.” He mentally measured the distance. “A meter and a half, I’d say.”

 The Doctor raised his foot and had Alistair make certain it pointed in the right direction. Once he was confident enough, he gripped around Alistair’s legs tighter and jumped.

 Alistair forced himself to not close his eyes as the Doctor’s feet left the ground. The moment they were in the air somehow lasted far too long. He sucked in a breath as they came down on the purple square. They were a little off-center, but the Doctor’s feet did not touch any green around the square.

 It took a couple seconds for Alistair to breathe.

 “I assume I did it correctly?”

 “Yes.”

 The Doctor blew out a breath. “Let’s take it one at a time, then.”


	6. Chapter 6

 Making it down this patterned corridor had been one of the most nerve-wracking experiences of Alistair’s life, especially since he couldn’t do anything except try to not disrupt the Doctor’s motions. All he could do was direct his friend and hope he could do what was needed.

 Thankfully, they’d been able to do it successfully. The Doctor let Alistair slide down off his back, and they both slumped down against the wall for a rest, breathing heavily.

 “Hopefully there’s no trapdoor under us this time,” Alistair remarked.

 “Let’s not give them any ideas.”

 “Not my intention.” Alistair fruitlessly rubbed at one of his legs.

 “Feel anything?” the Doctor inquired.

 “If only. See anything?”

 “If only,” the Doctor echoed. He dropped his head sideways onto the other man’s shoulder.

 Alistair’s mouth formed a tiny warm smile as he looked down at the grey hair. He moved his hand over from his leg to rest on the Timelord’s forearm.

 “Not going to complain about me using you as a pillow?” the Doctor teased.

 “Even if I wanted to, I’d have no room to talk.”

 The Doctor chuckled, and got a little more comfortable. His hair tickled the side of Alistair’s neck in the process. He stretched his legs out in front of him, then brought them back up halfway.

 Alistair stared down at their hands as the Doctor threaded their fingers together and gently squeezed. He raised his gaze after a long moment, and turned his head to rest his chin on the other’s head. “We’ll get out of here, Doctor. You’ll get your sight back, and I’ll get my legs back,” he softly assured.

 The Doctor simply hummed and closed his eyes in response. Alistair felt the Timelord’s body relax more, and he suggested, “If you’re looking for a spot of sleep, I’ll keep watch.”

 “Would you? There’s a good chap,” the Doctor mumbled.

 Alistair was also feeling tired, but he didn’t complain. If either of them needed sleep now, it would have to be the Doctor, with him doing much more of the physical work. He took a deep breath, and lifted his chin from the hair below to glance around for any potential danger.

 ********

 About an hour later, Alistair was fighting off the lure of sleep when as suddenly as the floor dropping out from under them before, a large mid-grey coloured rectangular barrier came down from above and enclosed them.

 “What the- Doctor, get up!” Alistair made to push himself up before he remembered about his legs, then shook the Doctor to full awareness.

 “What is it?” The Timelord sat up fully, his voice not tinged with any remnant of tiredness.

 “They’ve dropped some sort of… cage on us.” Alistair scooted forward to touch the closest surface. It felt like a glass or hard plastic. Before he could report that to the Doctor, it and the surrounding corridor disappeared and were instantly replaced by another room.

 At the sight of the tall yellow-skinned red-eyed aliens, Alistair again tried to get up to his feet. The Doctor, still sitting, blindly reached out for him and grabbed his sleeve.

 “Brigadier, what is it?”

 Alistair kept his eyes on the other people. “The ones who brought us here.”

 “Indeed, we are,” one of the aliens answered. Its voice sounded both low and high at the same time in a strange blend. The shimmering dark material of their uniforms only added to that mysterious air.

 The Doctor got to his feet, stumbled over Alistair’s leg but kept steady enough, and moved to stand in front of the half-paralyzed man in a protective position. He aimed his gaze in the direction of the voice. “If you’re going to hurt us more-“

 “We will not,” the leader said.

 The Doctor adjusted his gaze again. He lowered one hand near the side of his thigh, where he could sense Alistair’s hand hovering, probably ready to pull him back in case of any threatening motions from the other people. The Doctor could hear five other breathing patterns, meaning there were four of the aliens in the room. He briefly brushed his fingers over the back of Alistair’s hand before he responded, “How do we know you won’t?”

 Alistair caught the motion from their side, and shouted out, “Down, left!”

 The Doctor ducked, and he felt and heard the wind as the short staff went over his head. He turned left, to face whatever the threat was. The alien who swung the staff stepped back.

 “Now we will not,” the leader amended.

 “Another test?” the Doctor asked, turning back to the leader.

 Alistair kept his head moving, making certain there wouldn’t be any more surprises.

 “Yes. Simply to confirm our observations.” The leader smiled at them. “You’ve made great test subjects. Interesting and informative to observe.”

 “Why?” Alistair asked. “Why kidnap and study us?” He again reached his hand up to the side of the Doctor’s waist.

 “You seemed interesting from afar.”

 “How long have you been watching us?” Alistair then demanded before the Doctor could ask the same question. “How have you been watching us?”

 “That is unimportant.”

 “I find that rather important,” the Doctor replied before Alistair could say his protest.

 The leader made a flicking motion with its head. “Not any longer. The experiment is over.”

 The Doctor raised his brow. “You could’ve started with that and avoided more hostility.”

 “That had better mean you’ll fix whatever you did to us,” Alistair said.

 “You will be returned to your previous state.”

 The Doctor and Alistair waited a short moment before the soldier prompted, “Well? Aren’t you going to reverse it?”

 “It will take several hours for the process to complete. There is no reason to keep you here now that the experiment is over. We will return you to where we found you.”

 “Hold on, shouldn’t you keep us until it’s done to make certain it does so correctly?” the Doctor protested.

 “There is no need. Thank you for helping in our research.”

 “Research into what?” Alistair demanded. “You still haven’t answered our que-“ He stopped as his surroundings abruptly changed in a split-second, and he found himself sitting on a country road.

 The Doctor turned quickly, feeling the new breeze on his face. “What happened? Where are we?”

 Alistair glanced around in the early dawn light. The road was lined on both sides by forest. His eyes widened at the sight of Bessie a good distance down and in the treeline, like the car had careened off the side of the road. That was very probably exactly what had happened, if they had been quickly kidnapped. Then he remembered they had been headed back to HQ after a long day of investigating something that had turned out to be very little. That had been in the early evening. “The road we were driving on. Bessie’s down the way.”

 The Doctor glanced around a little more, hoping to see something now, but sighed when he didn’t. “Several hours, they said.” He found Alistair and crouched down to pick him up to his feet.

 “No change for me yet, either.”

 “Is Bessie nearby?”

 Alistair turned them in the right direction. “Off the road.”

 “If they damaged her…” The Timelord began walking them towards his car.

 “I’m more concerned if they’ve damaged us.” Alistair looked around again. “We’ve been gone all night, at least.” He grimaced. “I’d hate to think we’ve been gone that plus another twenty-four hours.”

 “I don’t think it was that long.”

 “Still long enough to make everyone worry, unfortunately.”

 They reached Bessie a minute later, and awkwardly maneuvered to sit in the front seats. Alistair found his radio on the floor next to the pedals, along with his handgun and the sonic screwdriver. The car keys were still in the ignition. He set his gun and tool on the seat next to him, and raised the radio to his mouth.

 “Think we could get back to HQ on our own?” the Doctor asked, placing his hands on the steering wheel.

 Alistair froze mid-motion at the question. “You can’t be serious.”

 “I don’t see why not, between the two of us.”

 “And how would that work? You operating the pedals while I handle the steering? I’d have to sit on your lap.”

 “That’s not a problem.”

 “And even then I don’t trust us not to crash and…” Alistair noticed the small joking grin on the other man’s face. “I’ll call for help, shall I?”

 The Doctor turned to him, his grin widening. “Yes, I think that’s best.”

 Alistair shook his head with a tiny smile of amusement, and turned the radio on. “Jupiter to base, anyone read me?”

 “Sir? Brigadier, sir? Corporal Palmer here.”

 “Ah, Corporal. Would you know if Captain Yates or Sergeant Benton are there?”

 “Think so, sir. Don’t think they would’ve left, with you and the Doctor gone missing.”

 “Right, well, tell them to come get us. We’ll need at least two people.” He then told the soldier their location as closely as he could remember.

 “I’ll let them know right away, sir.”

 “We’ll expect to see them within the hour.” Alistair put the radio down. Then he shivered from the cool moist air. He didn’t protest at all as the Doctor instantly put his arm around him and drew him in close for warmth.

 By the time Yates, Benton, and Jo found them, the Doctor’s vision was no longer completely black, and Alistair could feel the beginning of sensation in his lower thighs.

 ********

 Alistair awakened in the UNIT infirmary a few hours after he had insisted he and the Doctor stay there until they were back to normal. He flinched at the Timelord siting on the edge of his bed and looking down at him.

 “Didn’t mean to startle you,” the Doctor apologized.

 Alistair waved dismissively. “You can see me now?”

 “Colors, shapes, and some definition, though nothing clear yet.” The Doctor bent over closer with a smile. “I never thought I’d be so glad to see your face.” He then laid his hand on Alistair’s knee.

 Alistair couldn’t help the small smile at the sensation of the touch. It wasn’t full yet, but definite progress. “I didn’t think I’d be so relieved to feel you touch my leg.” 

 The Doctor trailed his fingers down the other man’s shin. Alistair sat up and grabbed his friend’s wrist. “And that’s quite enough of that.”

 The Doctor withdrew his hand with a chuckle. “Well, Alistair… if you ever need me to carry you again, I’ll happily do so.”

 “I think I can handle being your eyes again, if the unfortunate need rises again.”

 The Doctor patted Alistair’s thigh. “You know, I think we learned something about ourselves. Or maybe confirmation of something we already knew would be a better way to word it.”

 “What?”

 “We make a good team.”

 Alistair nodded. “I like to think so. Certainly all our successes aren’t all due to luck,” he remarked.

 The Doctor leaned in very close to see him as clearly as he could, and Alistair wasn’t bothered by the lack of personal space. He almost found himself getting lost in the deep blue of the eyes as the Doctor’s expression became vulnerable.

 “I’ve got you… We’ve got each other?” His hand closed over the other man’s.

 Alistair held the open gaze and laid his other hand over the Timelord’s. “Yes, Doctor, we do.”


End file.
